Dream Catcher (ON TEMPORARY HOLD)

Chapter #2: First Knot.

      My eyes flutter open and my blurry vision slowly but surely becomes clear. I pull off my glasses with one hand and use the other to rub my raw, crusty feeling eyes. Brushing the crummy seeds from the corners of my eyes I can feel the weight of my lids as I force them open. Returning my glasses to their rightful position over my weak brown orbs my vision is now at it's clearest enabling me to see that some of the snow has melted and a few rays of light shining on small sections of the ground. I rub my face and widen my eyes realizing I'm alive. I rub my empty stomach and pull my arms back through my sleeves before crawling out of my tree.

      My back releases small cracking sounds as I stretch and pull myself up from the ground. My legs are also tense with a stiff but weak feeling. My whole body is sore and tense, not to mention cold. My feet and hands feel so dumb I'm dumbfounded I can even stand or wiggle my fingers! The landscape in this particular area is sort of flat I happen to notice now that I can see better. Looking up I view the small rays of light poking out through the thick branches above me. The lights are small, far and few in between as well. To be honest, if the sunlight wasn't poking through right now I don't think I would even be able to tell it's daylight in here.

      It's a little lighter in here than last night but only by a few notches. There's such a massive shadow overcast and even the snow looks gray. Ggggrl my stomach grumbles. I frown and rub my stomach again. Alright, I have to find food. I may not have died last night which, believe me, is a huge plus but that's not going to keep me from dying today. The way I'm looking at it now is if I survived a night in the freezing cold by myself I can survive another night if I work my ass off.

      I don't have tools or any equipment so I think that's the first thing I should start working on after I find something to eat, I told myself before looking at my sanctuary. I need to mark these trees so I can find my way back here. I might find other sanctuaries along the way but this is the one I have no so I should keep it. Tilting my head to the side I place a hand to my chin thinking over my options when I feel something dangling from the back of my belt loop. Turning my head downward, I begin to feel my lips curl upwards into a smile. "My mom's dream catcher!" I call aloud untying it from the belt loop of my hands. I run my hands over the soft feathers and small silver keys, the smooth texture of the circle band bringing some feeling back into my numb hands.

      The fiber made strings in the center remain sturdy and tied tightly. I can't help but chuckle to myself as I admire my mother's piece of work. Suddenly something catches my eye and my smile instantly drops. As I raise the dream catcher to my face I see what is a knot tied in the top corner and I know for a fact it wasn't there before. I know damn well I didn't tie it there. My mother crafted this thing as new as can be with raw materials the web was tied as if Asibikaashi herself crafted it for a newborn. Just then, this instantaneous feeling of intense dread shivers up my spine and crawls like a cockroach would over my shoulders causing me to shudder. I quickly begin inspecting the area around me contemplating if something is lurking in these enlarged shadows.

      Thump! Thud! I hear. Snapping my head toward the right I locate the sound, in astonishment, I drop my jaw low in agape. So far I haven't seen any animals in these woods but before me now stands a massive deer with a rack of horns so large I swear they could pierce through a person! My chestnut brown eyes lower and I crouch a bit hoping to appear smaller, his shoulders and chest alone look bigger than my own and don't even get me started on the size of its head. I watched him turn his head toward me and lift it as if it were trying to further scare me into submission. He moves his large head at an agonizingly slow pace tilting it at an unusual 24-degree angle while he drags his red eyes over to me.

      My chest tightens and I swear my heart has stopped because this giant deer, like twice the size of me (I'm 6 feet tall) is looking at me like he wants to eat me. He abruptly slams down his hove which makes this loud smacking sound that resonates throughout the forest. He turns his head down at me and I flinch. He takes a few steps toward me and I immediately pull myself backward to increase the distance between us. He seems to notice this because he stops and just sort of... blinks at me. Unable to keep my eyes locked on him anymore I blink. When my eyes open again I don't see him anywhere.

***

      Right now I'm working on making a new dream catcher. One to hang above the entrance of my tree here. I was able to find some strawberry bushes nearby and I pretty much just ate a shit ton of strawberries until I felt like I couldn't eat them anymore. I've decided that I'll use dream catchers as markers for any sanctuaries I obtain while I'm stuck in this darn forest. I have no clue when, where, or how I'm going to get out of here. If I'll even get out of here. I just figured that for right now if I want hopes of a future whether it's in or out of here, I need to figure out how to survive in here now. I think I was really lucky that there just happened to be a bush of strawberries nearby.

      So how am I making a dream catcher one might ask? Well, I always carry a pocket knife in my shoe so I'm using that along with some thin wood and bush vines from the strawberry bush. It's definitely not going to be the prettiest or most well-made dream catcher considering I'm lacking the proper materials but this makeshift one will have to do for now. I finish weaving together the web and carefully adjust the outside trying to ignore my own frustration every so often, I have large hands so they sometimes get in the way when I'm trying to work on the final details. After completing my makeshift dream catcher I hang it above the tree's entrance wrapping the string around a large piece of bark protruding from the rest of the tree.

      "Alright, now that that's done let's have a look around," I say to myself while turning around to face the forest before me. It helps to talk out loud from time to time, it helps to have some sound rather than no sound even if it's only me. I begin walking forward, the dream catcher my mother made me is strapped to the belt loop of my pants again keeping it close to me at all times. I make mental notes to gather anything that looks edible on the way. I've concluded that there's no point in trying to run out as I can't leave so I'm walking deeper in. I guess the idea is if I walk deeper in maybe I'll find something.

      Admittedly, I can't get that deer out of my head. I grew up living in cities for the most part so I've never seen a deer before but I've never even heard of one being that big. I swear it was like twice my size and I'm kind of a big guy so I'm really baffled by it. What's more than that is the freaking deer had red eyes, it's not like it's albino either so it's weird. No, behind weird! It's like some kind of bad omen! To make things even more twisted is since I got here there hasn't been any signs or sounds of other animals around. That deer is the first and last animal I've seen so far. Was it even real? I rub the back of my neck in disbelief. I watch my steps appear in the snow. Not a single track or even a pine cone rests here.

      Honestly, this forest is unusually clean. There's not even spots of animal deification or pine needles anywhere. I follow the small rays of sunlight wanting to stay closer to some sort of light and away from the shadows. After an or so of walking something odd comes into view. I squint my eyes and lean forward trying to get a better look but there's a thick fog around it. On either side or behind me the air is clear but in front of me, about 100 yards or so away is a thick fog. Grabbing my dream catcher I take another glance at the single knot in the top corner. No, there is something going on here. Call it hallucinations, tell me I'm insane, that I'm dreaming, that this is some sort of tribal religious thing. But something is going on here, something freaky.

      Logically in a situation like this, I would be high tailing my ass out of here but since this madman forest has clearly made that forbidden I have no choice but to put up with it. Who knows, maybe the forest is like alive!? Like sentient? Maybe it wants me to learn things about it? Or it's just trying to trick me so it can eat me or something? Facing the area of thick fog I look back down at the knot in my dream catcher. With a nod of my head, I make my decision and make my way toward the fog.